Enciclopédia Mackey – FOWLE ~ FRANKS

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

F

FOWLE, HENRY

A native of Medford, Massachusetts. born in September, 1766, went to Boston at fourteen N ears of age and served an apprenticeship as a pump and block maker, which occupation he followed in after life. Better educated than most mechanics of his time, he had good knowledge of the French language and spoke it with the same fluency as his mother tongue. He was initiated into the Lodge of Saint Andrew, Boston, April 10, 1793; was first Master of Mount Lebanon Lodge, Boston, the Charter for which Lodge he had been active in securing, which office he held in 1801, 1802, l803 and 1805, the Lodge having been granted its Charter on June 8, 1801. In 1805, Brother Fowle resigned his membership in the Mount Lebanon Lodge and returned to the Lodge of Saint Andrew, where he served as Master from 1810 to 1817. He was elected Junior Grand Deacon of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and served in this capacity from December 27, 1802, to December 7, 1805, then as Senior Grand Deacon until December 14, 1807. From 1807 until December 27, 1808, he was Junior Grand Warden and from that time to December 28, 1809, he held the office of Senior Grand Warden. December 17, 1810, to December ”8, 1818, he was Grand Marshal. Brother Fowle united with Saint Andrew’s Royal Arch Chapter as a member on February 18, 1795, and was admitted an honorary member on November 2, 1808. In October, 1797, he was elected Scribe of the Chapter and held the office two years, and October of 1799 he was elected to the office of King, held this situation five years, in 1804 becoming High Priest of the Chapter and remaining in this position four years. He also headed the Chapter in 1813 and 1814. He was Deputy Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts for ten years, and for several years an officer of high rank in the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States. Received Knight Templar Degree in Saint Andrew’s Chapter, January 28, 1795, and first Sovereign Master, Boston Encampment, Red Cross Knights, 1802-24; Grand Ceneralissimo, Grand Encampment of United States, 1816, Deputy Grand Master, 1819. See Bylaws of Saint Andrew’s Royal Arch Chapter, Boston, 1866 (pages 106 and 107) where we are also told of Brother Fowle that, “As he was perfect in the ritual of every grade of the Order, he was considered high authority by his younger and less informed Brethren” (see Memorial Volume, Knights Templar Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Henry W. Rugg, pages 97-103). During the many years of his activity he served almost constantly on various Committees of the Grand Lodge and records show his name on each and every Committee appointed which had anything whatever to do with matters pertaining to regalia, and his correspondence shows that he personally submitted designs to the Grand Lodge for many of the official Jewels of Office. Right Worshipful Brother Henry Fowle died in Boston, at the age of seventy-one, March 10, 1837.

FRANCE

The early history of Freemasonry in France is, from the want of authentic documents, in a state of much uncertainty. Kloss, in his Geschichte der Freimaurerei in Frankreich or History of Freemasonry in France (volume i, page 14), says, in reference to the introduction of Freemasonry into that kingdom, that the earliest date of any certainty is 1725. Yet he copies the statement of the Sceau Rompu, meaning the Broken Seal a work published in 1749 that the earliest recognized date of its introduction is 1718; and the Abbé Robin says that nothing of it is to be found further back than 1720.

Brother Lalande, the great astronomer, was the author of the article on Freemasonry in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, and his account has been generally recognized as authentic by succeeding writers. According to him, Lord Derwentwater, the Chevalier Maskeleyne, a Mr. Heguetty, and some other Englishmen, the names being corrupted, of course, according to French usage, founded, in 1725, the first Lodge in Paris. It was held at the house of an English confectioner named Hure, in the Rue de Boucheries. In ten years the number of Lodges in Paris had increased to six, and there were several also in the provincial towns.

As the first Paris Lodge had been opened by Lord Derwentwater, he was regarded as the Grand Master of the French Freemasons, without any formal recognition on the part of the Brethren, at least until 1736, when the six Lodges of Paris formally elected Lord Harnouester as Provincial Grand Master; in 1738, he was succeeded by the Duke d’ Antin; and on the death of the Duke, in 1743, the Count de Clermont was elected to supply his place. Brother R. F. Gould, in his Concise History of Freemasonry (page 355), considers that the name Harnouester is probably a corruption of Derwentwater.

Organized Freemasonry in France dates its existence from this latter year. In 1735, the Lodges of Paris had petitioned the Grand Lodge of England for the establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge, which, on political grounds, had been refused. In 1743, however, it was granted, and the Provincial Grand Lodge of France was constituted under the name of the Grande Loge Anglaise de France. The Grand Master, the Count de Clermont, was, however, an inefficient officer; anarchy and confusion once more invaded the Fraternity; the authority of the Grand Lodge was prostrated; and the establishment of Mother Lodges in the provinces, with the original intention of superintending the proceedings of the distant provincial Lodges, instead of restoring harmony, as was vainly expected, widened still more the breach. For, assuming the rank and exercising the functions of Grand Lodges, they ceased all correspondence with the metropolitan Body, and became in fact its rivals.

Under these circumstances, the Grand Lodge declared itself independent of England in 1755, and assumed the title of the Grande Loge de France. It recognized only the three Degrees of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, and was composed of the Grand Officers to be elected out of the body of the Fraternity, and of the Masters for life of the Parisian Lodges; thus formally excluding the provincial Lodges from any participation in the government of the Craft.

But the proceedings of this Body were not less stormy than those of its predecessor. The Count de Clermont appointed, in succession, two Deputies, both of whom had been displeasing to the Fraternity. The last, Lacorne, was a man of such low origin and rude manners, that the Grand Lodge refused to meet him as their presiding officer. Irritated at this pointed disrespect, he sought in the taverns of Paris those Masters who had made a traffic of initiations, but who, heretofore, had submitted to the control, and been checked by the authority of the Grand Lodge. From among them he selected officers devoted to his service, and undertook a complete reorganization of the Grand Lodge.

The retired members, however, protested against these illegal proceedings; and in the subsequent year, the Grand Master consented to revoke the authority he had bestowed upon Lacorne, and appointed as his deputy, M. Chaillou de Jonville. The respectable members now returned to their seats in the Grand Lodge; and in the triennial election which took place in June, 1765, the officers who had been elected during the Deputy Grand Mastership of Lacorne were all removed. The displaced officers protested, and published a defamatory memoir on the subject, and were in consequence expelled from Freemasonry by the Grand Lodge. Ill feeling on both sides was thus engendered, and carried to such a height, that, at one of the communications of the Grand Lodge, the expelled Brethren, attempting to force their way in, were resisted with violence. The next day the lieutenant of police issued an edict, forbidding the future meetings of the Grand Lodge. The expelled party, however, still continued their meetings. The Count de Clermont died in 1771 and the excluded Brethren having invited the Duke of Chartres, afterward Duke of Orleans, to the Grand Mastership, he accepted the appointment. They now offered to unite with the Grand Lodge, on condition that the latter would revoke the decree of expulsion.

The proposal was accepted, and the Grand Lodge went once more into operation. Another union took place, which has since considerably influenced the character of French Freemasonry. During the troubles of the preceding years, Masonic Bodies were instituted in various parts of the kingdom, which professed to confer Degrees of a higher nature than those belonging to Craft Freemasonry, and which have since been so commonly known by the name of the High Degrees. These Chapters as summed a right to organize and control Symbolic or Blue Lodges, and this assumption has been a fertile source of controversy between them and the Grand Lodge. By the latter Body they had never been recognized, but the Lodges under their direction had often been declared irregular, and their members expelled.

They now, however, demanded a recognition, and proposed, if their request was complied with, to bestow the government of the Hauts Grades, or High Degrees, upon the same person who was at the head of the Grand Lodge. The compromise was made, the recognition was decreed, and the Duke of Chartres was elected Grand Master of all the Councils, Chapitels, and Scotch Lodges of France.

But peace was not yet restored. The party who had been expelled, moved by a spirit of revenge for the disgrace formerly inflicted on them, succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a committee which was empowered to prepare the new Constitution. All the Lodges of Paris and the provinces were requested to appoint Deputies, who were to form a Convention to take the new Constitution into consideration. This Convention, or, as they called it, National Assembly, met at Paris in December, 1771. The Duke of Luxembourg presided, and on the twenty-fourth of that month the Ancient Grand Lodge of France was declared extinct, and in its place another substituted with the title of Grand Orient de France.

Notwithstanding the declaration of extinction by the National Assembly, the Grand Lodge continued to meet and to exercise its functions. Thus the Fraternity of France continued to be harassed, by the bitter contentions of these rival Bodies, until the commencement of the Revolution compelled both the Grand Orient and the Grand Lodge to suspend their labors. On the restoration of civil order, both Bodies resumed their operations, but the Grand Lodge had been weakened by the death of many of the perpetual Masters, who had originally been attached to it; and a better spirit arising, the Grand Lodge was, by a solemn and mutual declaration, united to the Grand Orient on the 28th of June, 1799.

Dissension’s, however, continued to arise between the Grand Orient and the different Chapters of the high Degrees. Several of those Bodies had at various periods given in their adhesion to the Grand Orient, and again violated the compact of peace. Finally, the Grand Orient, perceiving that the pretensions of the Scottish Rite Freemasons would be a perpetual source of disorder, decreed on the 16th of September, 1805, that the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree should thenceforth become an independent Body, with the power to confer Warrants of Constitution for all the Degrees superior to the Eighteenth, or Rose Croix; while the Chapters of that and the inferior Degrees were placed under the exclusive control of the Grand Orient.

But the Concordat was not faithfully observed by either party, and dissension’s continued to exist with intermittent and unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation, which was, however, at last effected in some sort in 1841. The Masonic Obedience of France was later on more amicably divided between the the Bodies, and the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council exist as independent powers in French Freemasonry. The constant tendency of the former to interfere in the administration of other countries would furnish an unpleasant history for the succeeding thirty years, at last terminated by the general refusal of the Grand Lodges in the United States, and some in Europe, to hold further Masonic communication with it; a breach which every good Freemason must desire to see eventually healed. One of the most extraordinary acts of the Grand Orient of France has been the abolition in 1871 of the office of Grand Master. the duties being performed by the President of the Council of the Order.

Discussion and an attempted avoidance of a threatening Masonic calamity by a large number of the Fraternity of France did not avail to prevent the General Assembly of the Grand Orient of France from completing its overthrow and that of its subordinates by the almost unanimous adoption of the now famous amendment of Article I of the Constitution of Freemasonry, on September 14, 1877.

The following is the text of the amendment and of the original second paragraph which was expunged:

Original paragraph: “Freemasonry has for its principles the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the solidarity of mankind.”

Substituted amendment: “Whereas, Freemasonry is not a religion, and has therefore no doctrine or dogma to alarm in its Constitution, the Assembly adopting the Vaeu IX has decided and decreed that the second paragraph of .Article I of the Constitution shall be erased, and that for the words of the said article the following shall be substituted:

Being an institution essentially philanthropic, philosophy, and progressive, Freemasonry has for its object, search after truth, study of universal morality, sciences and arts, and the practice of benevolence. It has for its principles. absolute liberty of conscience and human solidarity, it excludes no person on account of his belief and its motto as Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” The adoption of the above was after a full and deliberate consideration by its constituents, who for more than a year were in the throes of deep deliberation and judgment.

The Grand Lodge of England appointed a Committee to consider this action of the Grand Orient in thus expunging the existence of T. G. A. O. T. U. from its tenets, and they reported that such alteration is “opposed to the traditions, practice and feelings of all true and genuine Masons from the earliest to the present time”; and it was resolved that foreign brethren could only be received as visitors if they had been initiated in a Lodge professing belief in T. G. A. O. T. U., and would themselves acknowledge such belief to be an essential landmark of the Order. Similar action was taken by other Grand Lodges.

Since the above article was prepared by Brother E. L. Hawkins, a third Grand Lodge came into being in France. This is the Grande Loge Nationale indépendante et Réguliere pour la France et les Colonies Françaises, or the National Independent and Regular Grand Lodge for France and the French Colonies as constituted and recognized by the Grand Lodge of England. From the Manifesto issued to the Brethren on December 27, 1913, at Paris by Grand Master E. de Ribancourt, and from the Histoire de la Franc Maçonnene Française by Albert Lantoine, 1925 (pages 410-5) we learn that a Lodge at Paris, named the Centre des Amis, the Center of Friends, worked the Degrees of the Rectified Scottish Rite, in French the Rite Ecossais Rectify, from 1910 under the auspices of the Diretoire Helvétique of Geneva, Switzerland, but joined the Grand Orient of France in 1911 with the understanding that it could continue to practices its old ritualistic customs. The Lodge was accordingly constituted as a subordinate Lodge of the Grand Orient on Stay 1 , 1911, by Gaston Bouley, President of the Council. This Lodge in 1913 wished to establish a Chapter of Saint Andrew which in operation we may say in passing is deemed by the Grand Orient and similar Bodies to be equivalent, to use Brother Albert Lantoine’s expression in his History (page 411), to the Eighteenth Degree, the completion of the series contemplated by the usual ceremonies of the Rectified Scottish Rite that the Lodge practiced. When the rituals were supplied through the Grand Orient they avers discovered to omit mention of the Grand Architect of the Universe. Against this omission the Lodge protested but in vain. Accordingly the Lodge Centre des Amis of Paris with the Lodge Anglaise (meaning English) of Bordeaux formed the new Grand Lodge as is said by the Manifesto, “to safeguard the integrity of our Rectified Rituals and preserve in France the true Masonry of Tradition.!’ Brother NV. J. Coombes. Commenting on the situation in a paper read in 1927 before the literary Lodge, Saint Claudius, No. 21, Paris, had this to say:

Our position (that of the National, Independent and Regular Grand Lodge) is clear for the Grand Orient forbids the use of the phrase concerning the (Se A. O. T. U. (Grand Architect of the Universe) and Juvanon, in his Vers la Lumiére (meaning in French, Towards the Light) puts the status of the Grand Lodge of France quite clearly when he says (page 81) that the Grand Lodge of France has in order to attract the sympathy of the Anglo-Saxons, authorized its Lodges to use or to reject, as they please, the formula of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and has even permitted certain Lodges to place the V. S. L. (the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Bible) on the pedestal of the Worshipful Master, and on its Master Masons Diplomas puts A. L. G. D. G. A. D. L. U. (the initials of the French words meaning To the Glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe) leaving every member to interpret the phrase as he pleases.

This Grand Lodge formed the Provincial Grand Lodge of Neustrie with headquarter at Paris, and the Provincial Grand Lodge of Aquitaine under Bordeaux, having several Lodges at Paris, as well as at Boulogne, Havre, Dunkirk. Rouen, Bordeaux, etc. (see Independent and Regular National Grand Lodge of France).

An essay read by Brother N. Choumitsky, Saint Claudius Lodge, No. 21, Paris, 1927, deals with the matter of mutual recognition and was based on some twenty documents in the archives of the Grand Lodge of the Urkraine. From these we find the Grand Lodge of France early in 1764 asked the Grand Lodge at London to supply a list of the Lodges she had warranted. On July 18, 1764, these details were sent showing that of 340 Lodges only three were constituted in France by her: The Lodge, No. 49, Paris, a la Ville de Tonnerre, July 3, 1732; Lodge, No. 60, Valenciennes, in Hainault, 1733, and Lodge No. 73, Chateau d’Aubigny (in Artois or Berry, probably the latter), October 12, 1735. These Lodges were erased from the English list and the two Grand Lodges agreed not to create Lodges on each other’s territory. In 1765 the French Grand Lodge sent a list of her Lodges to England, and a new list early in 1767 with copy of rules and a form of Deputation. These were welcomed and the reply to them promised various documents. But operations in France were suspended by the authorities, February 21, 1767. The official relations of the two Grand Bodies ceased. Freemasonry again showed signs of life in France in 1771 and in 1772 there was submitted to the Grand Lodge of England the subject of a treaty drawn up by Lebady. Brother Choumitsky says the Grand Lodge of England no longer wished to treat as between peers, but attempted to enjoy certain prerogatives.

This did not meet with approval but efforts toward establishing mutual relations continued and December 1, 1773, prompted by La Chaussee, Baron de Toussainet, Grand Secretary, wrote to the Marquis de Vignoles, of the Grand Lodge of England, but his letter remained unanswered. Again he wrote on December 17 to the Marquis as well as to Brother Charles Dillon, D.G.M., also to Lord Petre, Grand Master, and to the Grand Lodge of England itself. To each one of them he sent a report of his Masonic organization.

A treaty was sent from France on June 13, 1776, and we may also note that on June 28, in the name of the Grand Lodge of England, Brother Vignoles complained of the establishment at Naples of a Lodge, Saint John of Secret and Perfect Friendship, by the French authorities. On August 8, 1775, Vignoles wrote to La Chaussee expressing a belief that the treaty would be acceptable. Three items were announced on September 5, bar Brother Heseitine, as being inadmissible because of the same objections as were made to Lebady’s project in 1772. The difficulty really arose by the word equality.

Brother Heseltine, as reported by Vignoles, was of the opinion that basis could not hold good since Germanic Sweden, Holland, etc., recognized their Mother in the Grand Lodge of London, and the latter had proofs of its pioneer Masonic labors in France. Vignoles planned to meet this in a complimentary way by suggesting that the reference to English authorities should be to the Sublime Grand Lodge of the Noble and the Ancient Society of Free and Accepted Masons, established at the East of London, etc. However, Brother Guillotin, Orator of the Chamber of Provinces and member of the Commission charged to examine this, offered advice that the best course would be not to speak about equality at all, taking care at the same time to insert nothing whatever in the treaty which might confirm the idea of any claim for superiority.

Vignoles again wrote, June 4, 1776, announcing that the Grand Lodge of England remained steadfast in her decision. brother Choumitsky tells of the upheaval in their plans made by the struggle for American Independence followed by the French Revolution and the altars of the Empire. He quotes Rebold about the later and undated sending of Brother Morand to London unsuccessfully to negotiate an alliance with the Grand Lodge of England, and that in 1851 Brother Razy also failed. He therefore makes the claim that while French Freed masons were individually welcome, the Grand Bodies in France were not recognized until the formation of the relational and Independent Grand Lodge in October, 1913. (if the Grande Loge Mixte in France, and the steps leading up to this curious situation, the proposed initiation of women, see Masonry.

The Histoire de la Franc-Maçonnerie Française by Brother Albert Lantoine (pages 383-93) points out that the Grand Orient of France in the General Assembly of 1920 recognized the Lodge Droit Humain (Human Right or Equity) a leading Co-Masonic Lodge at Paris but that this recognition was limited, Brothers but not Sisters might visit Grand Orient Lodges. The Grand Lodge of France has since the Convention of October 25, 1903, declared members of any Co-Masonic Bodies as irregular and by a decision of the Federal Council of September 15, 1913, refused to make any distinction between the Bodies claiming to be Co-Masonic.

FRANCIS I, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA

Eldest son of the Duke of Lorraine, born December 8, 1708, succeeding his father in 1729 Also Duke of Tuscann. He married the famous Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, and in 1745 became Emperor of Germany. Initiated at The Hague, 1731, and made a Master Mason at a Special Lodge held at Houghton Hall that year while visiting England. During the reign of Maria Theresa Freemasonry was tolerated in Vienna, due, no doubt, to the patronage of the Emperor. His death occurred at Innsbruck, Austria, August 18, 1765, when he was Grand Master (see Dr. A. Mackey’s History of Freemasonry, 1921, pages 2236 and 2255).

FRANCIS II

This Emperor of Germany, was a bitter enemy of Freemasonry. In 1789, he ordered all the Lodges in his dominions to be closed, and directed all civil and military functionaries to take an oath never to unite with any secret society, under pain of exemplary punishment and destitution of office. In 1794, he proposed to the Diet of Ratisbon the suppression of the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and all other secret societies. Diet, by the way, is frown the Latin dies, meaning a day, and formerly applied to the period of a session or sitting of delis gates or other persons of importance was given to the group of individuals and in Austria and Germany particularly the name has been attached to assemblies of parliament. The Diet, controlled by the influence of Prussia, Brunswick, and Hanover, refused to accede to the proposition, replying to the emperor that he might interdict the Lodges in his own states, but that others claimed Germanic liberty. In 1801, he renewed his opposition to secret societies, and especially to the Masonic Lodges, and all civil, military, and ecclesiastical functionaries were restrained from taking any part in them under the penalty of forfeiting their offices.

FRANCKEN, HENRY A.

The first Deputy Inspector General appointed by Stephen Morin, under his Commission from the Emperors of the East and West. Francken received his Degrees and his appointment at Kingston, Jamaica. The date is not known, but it must have been between 1769 and 1767. Francken soon afterward repaired to the United States, where he gave the appointment of a Deputy to Moses M. Haves, at Boston, and organized a Council of Princes of Jerusalem at Albany. He may be considered as the first propagator of the advanced Degrees in the United States.

FRANC-MAÇON, FRANC- MAÇONNERIE

The French names of Freemason and of Freemasonry. The construction of these words is not conformable to the genius or the idiom of the French language, which would more properly employ the terms Mason libre, and Maçonnerie libre; and hence Laurens, in his Essais historiques et critiques sur la Franc-Maçonnerie, meaning Essays, Historical and Critical, on Freemasonry, adduces their incorporation into the language as an evidence that the Institution in France was derived directly from England, the words being a literal and unidiomatic translation of the English titles. But he errs in supposing that Franc-mason and Franc- Masonry are any part of the English language.

FRANÇOIS DE NEUFCHATEAU, LE COMTE

In the memoirs of Dixmerie, the surname is shortened to Chateau. Member of the famous Lodge of Nine Sisters and a renowned man of letters in France, as well as an able statesman. Born at Saffais, Lorraine, France, April 17, 1750; died at Paris, January 10, 1828. His real name was Francois but he was authorized by the Nancy Parliament in 1777 to take the name of Neufchateau. He was twice Minister of the Interior, President of the Senate, 1804 and 1814, and in 1806, together with Comte Lacepede, he revived the Lodge first founded in 1776. His name is on the Lodge lists of members in 1783, 1784, and on both issued for 1806. In the calendar of the Grand Orient for 1814, he figures as one of the three Conservators of the Grand Chapter (see Une Loge Maçonnique, Louis Amiable, 1897, page 304-7).

FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN

A Provincial Grand Lodge was established in this city, in 1766, by the Grand Lodge of England. In the dissension’s which soon after prevailed among the Freemasons of Germany, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Frankfort, not finding itself supported by its mother Grand Lodge, declared itself independent in 1783. Since 1823, it has worked under the title of the Grosse Mutterloge des Eklektischen Freimaurerbundes zu Frankfort a. M.

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN

Greatest of American diplomats, hero of the War of Independence, distinguished also as publisher and printer, editor and author, a notable philosopher whose instructive wisdom always charms and edifies, a scientist whose valuable discoveries are even today highly esteemed fundamental additions to practical knowledge he was a devoted Freemason occupying for many years places of official prominence and serving his Brethren with conspicuous Masonic zeal and aptitude.

Born at Boston, Massachusetts, he had only two years of school and at the age of ten left to work for his father in soap and candle making. At thirteen apprenticed to his brother James, a printer and publisher who started in 1721 a newspaper, the New England Courant, Franklin soon commenced to write both verse and prose, the latter quaint and vigorous of timely argument on public questions. Franklin went to rev York and in 1723 to Philadelphia, working as a printer. Encouraged to go into business for himself, he left for England, December, 1724, but the promised support failed and as a printer he was employed at London until October, 1796, when he again reached Philadelphia to resume his position there as a workman. In 1728 he formed a printing partnership.

Two years later he owned the business. From 1729-65 he published and edited the Pennsylvania Gazette. His enterprising career was industrious and capable in the extreme, a record not readily condensed in a brief article. He taught himself the use of several languages, made his influence multiplied by the printing press, his witty Almanacs brightly written for a quarter of a century averaged a sale of 10,000 copies annually. Postmaster in 1737, he also with twenty-three other citizens in 1749 founded an academy that became the University of Pennsylvania, a promoter of the American Philosophical Society, the organizer of the Junto a compact debating club somehow curiously resembling in its practices the same exchange of thought characterizing many past and present French Lodges to which Franklin may easily have contributed some influence if only by example.

Active in forming the first police force in the Colonies, starting the fire department, the militia, improving street paving, bettering the street lighting, introducing hospital service, and so forth, it has truly been said of him that he gave in his day the impulse to nearly every project for the welfare of his city. A member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, for almost twenty years in joint charge of the mails in the Colonies, delegated to the Albany Convention where he submitted a plan for colonial union, he was later entrusted with the raising of troops and the building of forts in the wilderness against the Indians. Recalled from this western responsibility, he was sent eastward, to England, as the agent of the protesting Colonies.

Honored by the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, made a Doctor of Laws by the University of Saint Andrews, Doctor of Civil Law by Oxford, he was already a Master of Arts at Harvard, at Yale, and at the College of William and Mary. Returning to handle successfully public service at home, he was once more employed abroad to represent the Colonies at a Committee of the English Parliament, and was back in Philadelphia in 1775.

v delegate to the Continental Congress, Post-Master General, on the Commission to Canada, one of the five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, President of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, chosen by Congress one of three to discuss terms of peace with Admiral Howe in 1776, Commissioner to France where John Adams wrote of him “Franklin’s reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire; and his character more esteemed and beloved than all of them.” Of his shrewd forcefulness we may read the dramatic estimate of Thackeray in the Virginians (chapter 9).

A member appointed in 1781 of the Commission to make peace with England, he also made treaties with Sweden and Prussia. Going home he at once was elected on the Municipal Council of Philadelphia and its chairman, then President of the Supreme Executive Council, and twice reelected Delegate to the Convention of 1787 framing the Federal Constitution, President of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery -signing a petition to Congress in 1790 and six weeks later in his old spirited style he defended with wit and literary art this plea. Last of his remarkable exploits for the public good these efforts just preceded his serene death in his home at Philadelphia on April 17, 1790.

Franklin’s Masonic connections are discussed in Beginnings of Freemasonry in America by Brother Melvin M. Johnson, P. G. M.; Benjamin Franklin as a Freemason by Brother Julius F. Sachse; Une Loge Maconnique d’Avant 1789, by Brother Louis Amiable, the latter work being the history of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters, or Muses, at Paris. Other sources of information are mentioned in the text. A concise statement of Franklin’s activities of leading interest to Freemasons is as follows:

1705 6, January 6, Old Style, born at Boston, Massachusetts (New Style, January 17, 1706).

1734, August, advertised his Mason Boolc, a reprint of Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons, the first Masonic book printed in America (see Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 284, May 9 to May 16, 1734). 1734, November 28, wrote as Grand Master to Brother Henry Price at Boston two fraternal letters, one officially regarding Masonic affairs and the other less formal (see Price, Henry)

1734-5, the State House, Independence Hall, built during Franklin’s administration as Grand Masters According to the old Masonic and family traditions the cornerstone was laid by him and the Brethren of Saint John’s Lodge (set Votes of the Assembly; Etting’s History of Independence Hall, also date on water spouts of the Hall) 1735-8, served as Secretary of Saint John’s Lodge (see Liber B. 1731-8).

1738, April 13, Franklin, in a letter to his mother wrote, “Freemasons have no principles or practices that are inconsistent with religion and good manners.” (See original draft in Franklin’s handwriting in his Commonplace Book in Collection of Historical Society of Pennsylvania )

1755, June 24 took a prominent part in the Grand Anniversary and Dedication of the “Freemason’s Lodge” in Philadelphia, the first Masonic building in America (see Pennstilvania Gazette, No. 1384. July 3,

1755; also A Sermon preached in Christ Church. Philadelphia 1755, in Collection of Historical Society of Pennsylvania).

1778, affiliated with Loge des Neuf Soeurs at Paris Presumably the example of Franklin was not without influence on the resolution taken by the leader of philosophy to be accepted a Freemason; and on the other hand if is certain that the initiation of Voltaire determined the Illustrious American to become affiliated with the Nine Sisters (Lodge)-” ” The name of Franklin comes a little after that of Voltaire on the printed list of 1779″(see Une Loge Maçonnique d’Avant 1789, page 145).

1778,-November 28, officiated at the Lodge of Sorrou) or Maçonic funeral services of Voltaire (see Manuseript in Collection of American Philosolyhical Society also Medal struck in honor of the occasion in Masonic Temple Library, Philadelphia. Brother Hnwkins states that another specimen of this rare medal is in the possession of the Grand Lodge of Mecklenburg. Germany).

1779, May 21, elected Worshipful Master of the Lodge of the Sine Sisters and the committee in notifying him at Passy, near Paris, spoke of the Important and many affairs in which he was engaged and that note withstanding that responsibility he could find time to “follow the sessions of the Freemasons as though a brother of utmost leisure.” Franklin was Worshipful Master for two years his authority being renewed in 1780 (see Une Loge Maçonnique d’Atant 1789, by Brother Louis Amiable 1897, pages 136, 145).

1782, July 7, member of the Respectable Lodge de Saint Jean de.Jerusalem (see docurnents in Collection of American Philosophical Society).

1785, April 24, elected Venerable d’Honneur of Respectable Lodge de Saint Jean de Jerusalem (see documents in Collection of American Philosophical Society).

1785, elected honorary member of Loge des Ron Amis, Good Friends, Rouen, France (see documents in Collection of University of Pennsylvania).

1786, December 27, in the dedication of a sermon delivered at the request of the R. W. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, by Reverend Joseph Pilmore in Saint Paul’s Church, Philadelphia, Franklin is referred to as ” an Illustrious Brother whose distinguished merit among Masons entitled him to their highest veneration” (copy of the book is on Collection of Historical Society of Pennsylvania and. in Masonic Temple Library Philadelphia).

1790, April 17 Benjamin Franklin passed to the Grand Lodge above

l906, April 19, memorial services at his grave in Christ Church yard, S- E corner Fifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia, by the officers of the R. NV. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania “the occasion being to observe the two hunderedth anniversary of the birth of Brother Benjamin Franklin.

FRANKS, ORDER OF REGENERATED

A political brotherhood that was instituted in France in 1815, flourished for a while, and imitated in its ceremonies the Masonie Fraternity.